Royal Bottle Sizes

You may have seen huge bottles in restaurants and wine stores and thought ‘There’s got to be a name for those bottles, other than Really Big Bottles.’ And there are. Pretty cool names, too.

A few numbers: A standard bottle holds 750mL and is the most common bottle size you will see.
A magnum holds 1.5 liters or 2 bottles

After the magnum, the names of bottle sizes come from the names of kings noted in the Old Testament.

JeroboamBottle – 3 liters/4 bottles in Champagne & Burgundy (as well as most New World). In Bordeaux this size is called a Double Magnum.King – After the death of Solomon, Jeroboam led a revolt against Rehoboam and became King of a newly independent kingdom of Israel.

RehoboamBottle – 4.5 liters/6 bottles (in Bordeaux this size is called a Jeroboam, just to confuse you).King – King of Judea after the death of his father, Solomon.

MethuselahBottle – 6 liters/8 bottles (in Bordeaux this size is called Imperiale).King – Here is an exception, as Methuselah is not a king, but rather the oldest man cited in the Bible at 969 years old.

SalmanazarBottle – 9 liters/12 bottlesKing – King of Assyria, also known as Shalmaneser. Mentioned in 2 Kings, Chapter 17.

BalthazarBottle – 12 liters/16 bottlesKing – In the Book of Daniel, King Belshazzar (or Balthazar) was the last king of Babylon.

NebuchadnezzarBottle – 15 liters/20 bottlesKing – King of Babylon (before Balthazar) who conquered and exiled many Jews. Also built the “Hanging Gardens of Babylon). Seen here in painting by William Blake.

There are larger bottles said to be out there – Melchior for 24 bottles and Sovereign for 34 bottles. These are very rare.

The largest wine bottle made so far was commissioned by Morton’s Steakhouse in 2004. At 4.5 feet tall, the bottle held 130 liters (173 bottles, 1200 glasses) of wine. The wine itself was Beringer Vineyards 2001 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve.